ANDY MURRAY last night conceded that pressure was being piled upon him to win Wimbledon in the wake of the departures of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal from the tournament.

Murray, who last night defeated Tommy Robredo of Spain in straight sets to progress to the fourth round, wryly reflected on comments by John McEnroe on his chances. Under the headline 'You cannot be losing', the former Wimbledon champion told an English newspaper: "I thought there was less pressure on Andy than there had ever been coming into the event. But with all due respect to these players in his half of the draw, they're not exactly household names."

He added: "'If he doesn't get to the final, this is going to be an absolute catastrophe."

Murray was delighted with his 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 win over Robredo under the roof of Centre Court but less pleased by the comments from McEnroe.

With No.29 seed Grigor Dimitrov, No.15 seed Nicolas Almagro and Sergiy Stakhovsky – the midweek conqueror of Federer – all exiting the competition yesterday, some have suggested that the Scot's path to the Wimbledon final as week tomorrow is straightforward. But Murray reflected on a week of upsets and said: "There's a lot more pressure on me now with them being out. I don't read the papers and stuff. But there are papers in the locker room, so you see some of the headlines and stuff. It's not that helpful."

But he added: "You need to be professional enough to not let that stuff bother you and just concentrate on each match. I think I did a good job of that today. I played well, my best match of the tournament so far."

The US Open winner and Olympic gold medallist will learn the identity of his fourth-round opponent today, after the match between Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Viktor Troicki of Serbia was unable to be played yesterday because of rain. The 26-year-old, who is attempting to become the first British winner of the men's singles at the All England Club since 1936, will now have a weekend off from competition but will practise on both days.

"I hope I can keep playing better and better but I am being pushed in my matches," Murray said. "People are putting even more pressure on me because of how the draw has worked out. I am trying to stay focused, but it is hard, and would be a lot easier if we concentrated on one match at a time. There are a lot of tough guys still in and young guys coming through. Upsets are never far away."

It would certainly be an upset if Murray was to fall to either Youzhny, the 30-year-old world No.26, or Troicki, the 27-year-old world No. 44. Murray would then have to play Juan Monaco (world No.20) or Ernests Gulbis (world No.39) in the quarter-final and then possibly Jerzy Janowicz, the Polish world No.22, to make the final.

Whatever the speculation over this path, it is unlikely that Murray will play Serena Williams. This possibility was raised in midweek but the Scot said: "It's not something I'm going to push to try to set up. I don't think it would prove much for either of us."